Brittney Griner is training with her Phoenix Mercury teammates for the first time since getting out of prison

Brittney Griner joined her Phoenix Mercury teammates for training at boot camp on Sunday and said it was “everything I wanted.”

The 6-foot-9 center was back on the court with the team for the first time in its existence released from a Russian sentence Colony on December 8th.

Griner spoke to the media on Wednesday — the first time since his release on a prisoner swap that allowed arms dealer Viktor Bout to return to his native Russia.

She broke down in tears during the press conference after a reporter struggled to control her emotions and began crying while asking the opening question.

On Sunday she was back in training with her Mercury teammates ahead of the new season.

“It’s all I wanted, just to find my groove, just get back into it,” Griner said.

“Am I where I want to be? No, because the last time I was with my team, I was in the finals against Chicago, and as much as I want to be Finals BG now, that’s not the case.

“So just give me some grace and my teammates will just pick me up. But I definitely feel in a good place to start a training camp.

“I mean, I didn’t fall, they didn’t have to get stretchers or oxygen or anything, so I think I’m doing pretty well.”

Griner calculated her release date if President Biden had not traded her freedom for Russia’s “dealer of death” according to the practice – October 25, 2030.

“If it had been the full nine, I think that would have been my release date,” added Griner.

‘Would have been very different. I don’t know if I would have been on the pitch at that point. But yeah, to be honest, I was just kind of preparing for the long haul.

‘You never know. But when things went fast I was really happy and knew I couldn’t wait to get back on the pitch.

A national champion with Baylor in 2012 and a WNBA champion with Mercury two years later, Griner supplemented her income by playing in the Russian league since 2014.

But when he returned to the country in February 2022, the Houston native was arrested at an airport outside Moscow with what Russian security claimed were cartridges of hash oil.

Amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, Griner was found guilty and sentenced to nine years out of a possible 10 in a Russian penal colony, where she made a complaint in November.

However, she was released a month later after the US State Department negotiated the prisoner swap for Bout.

The eight-time WNBA All-Star re-signed with Phoenix in February and is preparing to earn $165,000 for the upcoming season.

Griner officially returns to court on May 19 when she and the Mercury take on the Los Angeles Sparks on ABC/ESPN. She hasn’t played for the Mercury since 2021, when she led Phoenix to the WNBA Finals before losing to Chicago Sky.